Twice shy: seven ways Dark Souls 2 is tougher than Dark Souls

OXM - Last month, IGN hosted a 12 minute demo for Dark Souls 2 with a walkthrough commentary from director Yui Tanimura. The demo showed off several new areas from the game, as well as a few new gameplay mechanics. We've scrubbed back and forth through the footage more times than is healthy, and our sense is that Dark Souls 2 will be much, much harder even than the famously tough original.

Dark Souls had some really cheap moments, remember that stupid chest that would eat you? How were you supposed to know? Pissed me the heck off, and I never got pissed off during Demon's Souls. Almost every death in Demon's Souls was fair, not so in Dark Souls.

Think it depends on which you played first. I played dark Souls first when it came out and found it much more difficult than Demon Souls, which I got on PS+ and while it was challenging in the first half, it was a cake walk later on. I did worlds 1-3 completely before doing 4 and 5 and in both those worlds I only died in 5-2 by that red phantom.

But that was because I knew how to play, I knew how leveling up works (how it effected your weapon damage, didn't know how it worked in DkSouls til Anor Londo) and while I went knight class in Dk Souls the first time and was incredibly slow, in DeSouls I rolled with a light weight wizard.

I'm pretty sure if I went and played dkSouls right now it would be much easier than my first outing into the Souls games, but going into it blind was it was no cakewalk.

P.S. I agree DkSouls had a lot of cheap moments. Demon Souls was much more fair

I disagree, I say this to my friend a lot, it all depends on which on you played first. If you played Demon's Souls first, you will think that is harder than Dark Souls because when you went into Dark Souls you will have had a good grasp of the mechanics and know what to expect. And visa-versa.

Demon Souls went from hard to easy with SC. Not to mention Faith's HP regen stacking made it almost casual. 99 of every grass easy easy to get. Not saying Demon Souls was never hard, I was stuck on the first lvl for a week. And have 1000+ hours on both. Just saying it became easier.

These are my main issues that were addressed in Dark Souls for the better. - grass and spice hoarding (abused) -op magic (abused by spice(spamming) and pvp) - weight burden(an annoyance having stockpile thomas hoard everything) - Tendency was more of an annoyance in obtaining items and accessing areas than difficult(having to commit suicide and play offline so it wouldn't change).

Demons Souls was good, but it wasn't to the extent of Dark Souls or interesting in my opinion. I played Demon's at launch :3

I played the hell out of Demon's Souls and Dark Souls was still brutal on the first playthrough without a guide or any online help which is how I like to play these games. That's really only because Dark Souls is bigger and it's like one big maze at first, Demon's Souls at least had the Nexus which made navigating the world much easier, Dark Souls was hard has hell in terms of finding everything and knowing exactly where to go. It took me forever to figure out how to open Sen's Fortress amongst other things. I'm drooling waiting for Dark Souls 2, it can't come soon enough.

Yea we must be a rare breed, the ones that played Demon's Souls way before Dark Souls, and still think Dark Souls was harder. Here's why I say so.

Now, it's true that players of DeS were able to grasp DaS quicker, cuz we knew how it played already. However, DaS I still feel is harder because of how easy you can get lost like you said. I ended up going to the catacombs first when I got the game, and I was beyond frustrated.

Another reason is because the AI was MUCH more advanced this time around, which always calls for a more challenging time. This was especially true for the bosses, even the bigger ones which are always slow were still able to move better than in DeS. They didn't feel like they were stuck on a track.

Now, I've heard that some people think DaS is harder because it's cheap. I don't really understand that. The mimics for instance, you learn from that, and become wary of your surroundings, that isn't cheap to me, that's clever. If DaS is cheap at all, it's only because of the garbage online servers where you can lagstab someone from across the level.

"the AI was MUCH more advanced this time around, which always calls for a more challenging time."

Can't say I agree with this. You can still kill most A.I. just by arrowing them to death without them every even moving.

Example is you can clear out all 8 Capra Demons in the first section of the fire world(forget the name) just by standing on the ledge and picking them off. One dies and his buddy who's standing right next to him never even flinches and is taken out the same way, over and over. I don't understand how that's considered more challenging.

Does no else remember this? The mimics are cheap. It's almost an instant death with no way of having prior knowledge that something that hasn't poised even the slightest threat to us should now be viewed as a danger.

You shouldn't have to die to learn and death should be your fault and using something that EVERYONE will interact with and is considered safe as an insta death is cheap,imho.

Haha me too, I got to the Tomb of the Giants within my first ten hours of gameplay and was like "Wow, this is a joke. I will never make it through this, it's way harder than Demon's Souls." Certain areas like Tomb of the Giants and certain bosses like Smough and Ornstein are much harder than anything in Demon's Souls in my opinion.

Both were difficult in their own ways. Demon's souls didn't have bonfires as checkpoints and the levels were separate from each other by way of arch stones. Leveling up was easier but you also had soul drain which other users and fake king allant used to drain you one soul level from you which made you have to level up again. Demon's souls had the Nexus which was easily safer than bonfires. you level up there, get items, weapons etc, without the fear of having a black phantom invade because they can't enter the nexus, only the worlds that you play in.

Dark souls was nonstop travel through the world and you had to find bonfires to level up. leveling up was a lot harder in dark souls than demon's souls. Bosses were harder and there were plenty of them, even more so than demon's souls. in dark souls, bonfires are the only safe place to be unless a black phantom invades your game. then it just becomes unusable until you die or you beat the black phantom.

Regardless, they are both amazing games and should both be played by hardcore gamers.

Dark Souls was definitely dumbed down difficulty wise, lets all be honest here. Not saying Demon Souls was very hard, but it was a lot less forgiving then Dark Souls.

- Dark Souls has more checkpoints (Bonfires) - No real repercussions when you are hollow, like in Demon Souls your health is reduced to 50%, or 70% with a ring. - Bosses are more basic and easier in Dark Souls.

Too many checkpoints/bonfires in Dark Souls.

I can understand why they dumbed Dark Souls down a bit, so they could get more sales.

Overall I enjoyed Dark Souls more regardless, due to the more open world nature.

I played Dark Souls first and found it just the right amount of difficulty to keep me from giving up. Then playing Demon souls afterwards I find it harder to be honest, I really miss the bonfires for one thing and I'm finding it harder to level up so maybe it's different for everyone. Oh and I felt the mimic chests were good it was quite symbolic of the running theme of Dark Souls which is to always be on your guard, all you had to do was hit the chests with your sword before trying to open them.